Played on PC
The Golden Order is destroyed by a terrible war. The Night Lord is preparing to envelop the entire Inter-earth with an endless veil of night, and sends a deadly filth to the golden lands. The last obstacle to the onset of absolute and endless darkness are the Night Guards – fearless heroes of different origins from different eras. But even if they are not similar, they are united by the desire to stop the endless night. They will have to destroy the powerful minions of the dark lord, and then go into an unequal battle with the lord of the night himself.
Elden Ring Nightreign greets players with an atmospheric, dark and foggy introduction – to the point of goosebumps and playing on the right strings of the souls of a Souls lover. But if the intro skillfully captures the spirit of FromSoftware’s works, then the next few dozen hours will hardly resemble what we are accustomed to. Except that you will have to suffer a lot and often, and not always in those moments where it was intended…
Each expedition begins with a flight on an eagle over the picturesque expanses of the Inter-earth
⇡#Royal Roguelike Souls
Many details and elements of the gameplay of Elden Ring Nightreign really remind other Souls games, and, in particular, Elden Ring. The combat system, beautiful melancholic landscapes of the Betweenlands, pumping at places of grace for runes, familiar enemies, who came to the game including from Shadow of the Erdtree, – all evoke warm memories of the largest game of FromSoftware. But there is a difference, and a very noticeable one.
«”Soulful” projects require a thoughtful approach from players, often severely punishing haste and the desire to rush through a segment or boss faster. But not Nightreign! Here, speed and confident automatism of actions are the key to a successful expedition. After all, if you linger in the wrong place for even a moment, get stuck in a difficult fight, get lost in the labyrinth of castle complexes or winding cave tunnels, the inexorably approaching ring of filth will overtake the heroes, and if you do not urgently leave the danger zone, it will certainly kill you. And death in Nightreign deprives you of an entire level of pumping and all available runes, for which, of course, you can return, but in the night zone this will be extremely difficult.
The game cycle at the main location lasts two days, and on the third you will be sent to fight the main boss of the expedition
The shrinking zone, by the way, is not the only mechanic that got into Nightreign from the battle royale subgenre. The game features landing in a random place on a large map, and a frantic search for resources and power-ups, and the ability to rescue fallen comrades (to do this, the fallen ally needs to be a little… beaten). However, you will not meet enemy teams here, and the game cycle is much more reminiscent of modern roguelike projects like Ravenswatch – it is completely focused on rapid runs from one area of interest to another and their cleansing. These can be ruins, towers, catacombs, camps, castles, churches or, say, dungeons. In each such place, you can expect a fight with ordinary enemies or elite enemies, or a fight with the location boss. But, of course, the most important thing is the opportunity to get equipment, useful consumables, passive skills and, of course, earn runes for leveling up.
It sounds simple, but in practice, to succeed at each stage of the expedition, everything must go almost perfectly. After all, it is advisable to come to the main boss of the expedition with the best weapon, with the highest possible level and a couple of useful passive skills of “hidden power”, such as increased elemental damage or, say, restoration of health points for a series of blows. However, anything can go wrong: the enemies in the selected location will be too strong and will simply knock out the entire team, or someone from the squad will accidentally or intentionally break away from the group, which will prevent a quick clearing of the area and will result in a loss of time. Valuable seconds can be lost simply because of a couple of errors in route planning. And now time is running out, and you will have to run to the center of the narrowing zone, noticeably lacking in power and levels, which, in principle, can be fatal for the entire expedition.
During the expedition, random events may also occur, for example, a meteorite may fall nearby, and there will be a powerful enemy and a solid reward for victory.
The cost of failure is high, and this makes Elden Ring Nightreign an insanely tense game. Throughout the entire forty-minute (or so) campaign, the concentration of all party members must not sag for a second. And, of course, because of this, there is great disappointment when just one mistake by one of the group members dooms the entire expedition to failure. But how much pleasure is provided by expeditions in which the team acts harmoniously, quickly and thoughtfully – both in planning and on the battlefield, competently using all the features of the selected heroes.
⇡#Heroes of the “sussel”, assemble!
The Round Table brought together all sorts of characters “from different eras and different backgrounds” — heroes who literally embodied the studio’s experience over the past decades. For example, Wilder has the “claw throw” skill, which allows him to be attracted to enemies, drag them to himself, and cling to surfaces. Yes, almost like in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but with a smaller radius of action. The Duchess’s image aesthetically references Bloodborne, and the high speed of the gameplay for her is clearly taken from there (it’s a pity they didn’t give us firearms). The Executioner again brings us back to Sekiro and its most enjoyable mechanics — a swordsman in armor grown into his flesh can reflect enemy attacks, knocking down the balance of opponents and opening a window for a crushing critical strike.
Initially, only six heroes are available. The Duchess and the Ghost are unlocked through non-obvious manipulations – just as fans of “spiritual” games love
Two heavy and strong warriors, the Guardian and the Raider, evoke associations with Dark Souls, and the Hermit with her focus on combat magic already looks more like a typical Elden Ring heroine. The Ghost also relies on magic, but her gameplay is a little more unusual – she calls upon powerful spirits of her relatives to fight and specializes in supporting the team. The most atypical for the studio’s games is Iron Eye, both visually (bright light green clothing is not so common in FromSoftware’s dark projects) and in terms of gameplay, because he is a master of the bow. Yes, Elden Ring allowed you to play as an archer, but hardly any such build could be called competitive. In Nightreign, Iron Eye shoots arrows like a machine gun, and he is also very useful for the team, because he can find more loot on defeated enemies and put marks on enemies that will create a temporary vulnerable point.
In short, Elden Ring Nightreign gives a wide choice, and each class offers its own combat tempo, its own combat features, has its own strengths and weaknesses and provides a certain benefit to the team. However, the game does not prohibit going on an expedition with three Duchesses, rapidly attacking and annihilating all living things in the blink of an eye. With such a “tactic” it is also quite possible to reach the final boss of the expedition (I ran in such a squad, and it was fun), if only not to sag in damage. But, of course, a much more reliable game plan would be color differentiation of pants. Let’s say, someone will take on the role of a strong vanguard fighter like a Guardian, who will take a hit and distract bosses while the Executioner or Duchess provide stable damage in close combat. And from afar, they will be supported by Iron Eye or Hermit.
Each of the heroes has a “high art” skill – an ace up their sleeve that will have a serious impact on the battle: turning into a beast, making everyone invisible, or casting a particularly powerful area-of-effect spell
And, what is important, it is pleasant to play for each of the heroes. As, in principle, to fight against ordinary opponents and ferocious bosses, because the combat system of Elden Ring is still magnificent. However, playing with three players makes its own adjustments to the joy of the game. For example, the abundance of visual effects in a brawl is sometimes such that behind this visual noise you can easily not notice a crushing attack of the boss. And against three heroes, so many opponents often pour out into the arena that the battle turns into a chaotic massacre. And, for example, instead of playing for the Executioner, beautifully, clearly and rhythmically reflecting enemy blows, you have to furiously swing your katana in all directions, sometimes blindly.
And while the difficulty and number of enemies are balanced for three players, many aspects of the single-player game haven’t been rethought for the new context. For example, annoyingly long character animations (like when you try to cast a spell with no mana or drink from a flask with no charges left) may have been appropriate in a single-player game, but they’re completely out of place in a co-op game. After all, when you’re surrounded by a crowd of enemies, and the success of the campaign depends on your every action, every moment of unskippable animation can be decisive.
The main target of the first expedition, Gladius, is an incredibly ferocious reptile, fast, constantly and chaotically moving, striking suddenly and powerfully, and also over a huge area. Perhaps one of the most unpleasant opponents in the game
Communication difficulties
FromSoftware’s inexperience in multiplayer projects is really felt. And, first of all, because of the basic technical aspects – sessions are often interrupted due to a disconnection, or other players are spontaneously thrown out and returned to the game after a couple of minutes. Naturally, for a game with such a harsh nature, such things are critical, because no one wants to spend almost an hour of time to fall in battle with a boss due to a connection loss to the server.
The Elden Ring Nightreign is missing, as well as some fairly simple functions like the ability to leave the game if, say, one of the group members drops out of the session for some reason. That is, of course, you can bow out, but the game will warn you that there is a penalty for this. It is somewhat unfair to punish for leaving a party that is doomed through no fault of yours, you must admit. Instead, you are offered to suffer for another five to ten minutes, because even a team death in battle will not free you from the obligation to finish the game. Only death in a duel with the night boss (who awaits you in the center of the narrowing zone) finally grants deliverance and the opportunity to start a new campaign.
In the Round Table Fortress you can chat with other game characters or just watch them go about their leisure time.
The expedition may also be doomed due to the lack of another important element for a cooperative project – communication tools. Nightreign has no built-in voice chat, no ability to communicate via text, or even leave messages on the ground, as is common in Souls games and would fit in very well here. Instead, characters can only put marks on the map and confirm the route. And you can’t even organize a chain of marks (unless three players put a mark, creating a route, but I have never seen this in thirty hours of play), which simply kills any possibility of long-term planning and slows down the group significantly. After each cleared location, everyone will tensely decide where to run next. As a result, they will scatter in all directions, die, lose levels and runes, end up in the approaching death zone and come to the boss of the night with an “underleveled” level, in weak equipment and with zero morale. Such trips feel like a waste of time, and it is doubly offensive that this happens simply because of the lack of opportunity to interact normally.
So the best option and, in principle, a standard piece of advice for any cooperative game is to play with friends. And specifically three of them, because the two-player mode has not yet been officially presented (they promised to add it later, but for now the modders have already taken it upon themselves). But there is a solo mode, and in the first days after the release it was barely viable due to the absolutely merciless difficulty, which was later slightly tweaked. But this did not solve the main problem of single-player expeditions – after all, Nightreign is designed for collective passage and playing alone is simply not so interesting, especially considering that situations, locations, enemies and bosses will be constantly repeated, not to mention the fact that experienced players have long seen all this in single-player games of the studio.
Relics can increase the power of characters. Each hero has their own colors, and it is very strange that you often come across “stones” that have special class improvements, but they do not match the color of the hero of this class.
***
Elden Ring Nightreign left a mixed impression. The intense gameplay cycle, combat system and diverse classes – all this is wonderfully combined, completely immersing you in the project. You want to play Nightreign again and again! But the abundance of technical problems and the lack of basic functions that almost all current multiplayer projects have had for a long time, periodically ruin all the fun, make you want to quit the game and wait for a couple of patches. And, in principle, I was constantly haunted by the feeling that Nightreign is, to some extent, a technical test for a larger network project from FromSoftware – the upcoming The Duskbloods. Let’s hope the studio learns the necessary experience.
Advantages:
- Elden Ring’s combat system is still awesome;
- Unique classes with their own interesting features, skills and combat principles;
- Playing Nightreign with three people in a well-coordinated team is really fun…
Disadvantages:
- …But the lack of adequate means of communication greatly hinders interaction with random comrades;
- Unstable network code;
- Solo expeditions are not nearly as interesting as playing in a team.
Graphic arts
The picturesque views of the Betweenlands from Elden Ring still look as enchanting, although they do not cause delight, as the first time. As well as most of the effects, spells and enemies, which also moved to Nightreign from the big single-player game.
Sound
The sound design is at an amazing level – each location has its own recognizable acoustic image, each heroic ability sounds unique, which allows you to better navigate in battle, not to mention the clang of steel, the roar of explosions and magical splashes of spells.
The music is also epic and multidimensional, from elegiac string motifs to the cacophonous chaos that accompanies a battle with a dangerous enemy. And although the leitmotif clearly borrows a lot from Elden Ring, Nightreign’s soundtrack has enough of its own shades and solutions that better suit the aesthetics of the approaching night.
Single player game
You can try to go on an expedition alone, but be prepared for increased difficulty (even after the patch) and not particularly exciting gameplay in this case – it is clearly designed for three.
Estimated time of completion
One expedition will take you twenty to forty minutes, sometimes an hour, depending on the outcome. And to get to the Night Lord himself, prepare two to three dozen hours – and even then, it depends on your luck.
Collective game
An action-packed co-op action game, the emotions of which will depend entirely on many technical and human factors.
General impression
Elden Ring Nightreign is truly captivating in its gameplay loop and combat system, and all eight heroes are incredibly enjoyable in battles – you want to play the project binge-watch. But noticeable problems with the network part and meager tools for effective team communication can seriously overshadow your experience.
Rating: 7.0 / 10
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